After leaving the Moab Giants Dinosaur Park, we headed to the Canyonlands RV Park to park our trailer. This was seriously the final reservation available in all of Moab. We were just lucky that someone cancelled like two minutes before we called! This RV park was pretty nice and quiet for us and nicely tucked away in the middle of Moab.
We ate lunch and headed to Arches National Park for the rest of the day. One blessing for us was that we did not have to pay to get into the National Park! When we drove up to the entrance booth, the Ranger told us that their power was out so she had no way of taking money and told us to have a good time in the Park. We were shocked but grateful! That saved us $25! Once we got in the Park, we realized had no idea there was so much to see and do in Arches. Because the day was half over, we only had time for one hike so we decided to do the hike to Delicate Arch.
It was about a three mile hike round trip. We were wondering how the kids were going to do because it was a pretty strenuous hike up slick red rocks and sand. We had a carrier for Charlotte which was a great blessing to have. We got there about mid afternoon and had about three or so hours before it got dark. So off we went. We all laughed and talked and saw some cool sites as we hiked. The kids had a great time and loved the whole hike.
As we hiked, we pointed out different sites and cool things we saw. The hardest part of the hike was the straight up hill on slick rock and then not knowing where the end was. Once we got to the top, though, it was an amazing site.
The Delicate Arch was pretty spectacular. We were all so glad we had finally made it. The only problem was the wind. The wind was blowing so hard it was nearly blowing us over. The kids decided to hide under a rock to get out of the wind.
We just stood on the edge and took in the amazing views. While we were looking over everything, this little chipmunk came running right by our feet. He was not scared at all and let me take his picture up close.
The kids were really hating the wind so we were about ready to hike back down but I thought no way we are leaving now before actually hiking down under the Arch. So we did the scariest part and climbed down the cliff edge and hiked around the slick rock bowl to the bottom of the Arch. We had another tourist take our picture for proof. It was so cool to be right there. The kids even had a good time even though they were a little scared.
Like I said before, the views from around the Arch were breathtaking! Here are a few of the pictures I was able to take.
After enjoying the views for a while, we decided to head back down the trail. We saw some more amazing views as we were hiking back. One funny thing we noticed on the way back was this log that was covered in hats. This was the "Leave your Hat" log. The reason you should leave your hat here was because once you got up to the Arch, the heavy wind would blow your hat right off.
The trail back seemed much shorter than on the way up. The kids had a good time hiking this trail. There were a lot of people hiking with us and they were all commenting on how tough and strong our kids were for hiking so far. They loved hiking with their own Camelbaks and feeling strong.
At the bottom of the trail right before the parking lot, we found these cool petroglyphs.
After getting back to the truck, we drove around Arches for a while before it got too dark to see. As we were driving back to Moab, we were in the traffic jam of every other tourist going back to Moab. It was crazy, bumper to bumper, and it took us about a half hour to go five miles! We finally made it back to our trailer and headed to bed to get ready for another fun day in the morning.
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